1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio selective call receiver, and more particularly, to a radio selective call receiver which can notify a non-reception period of a message.
2. Description of the Related Art
A service to a radio selective call receiver has been spreading. In case of a telephone service, an originator charging system is being introduced.
A conventional radio selective call receiver is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 9-322213). In this technique, the radio selective call receiver can cope with a contract reception management.
Also, a conventional radio selective call receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 10-191416). In this reference, in the radio selective call-receiver, the confirmation of a reception message and the management of usage fee in a quantity-based fee charging system are facilitated.
With introduction of the origination-base fee charging system, a radio selective calling receiver is sold in the state which a selective call number is already registered on. Procedures of a user with a conventional service provider such as payment of a monthly basic fee becomes unnecessary fully. The user can simply buy and immediately use a radio selective call receiver. Also, when the utility value of the radio selective call receiver runs out, the user can stop use of the receiver without any troublesome procedure. On the other hand, it becomes almost impossible for the service provider to manage the sold radio selective call receiver.
By adopting the origination-base fee charging system, the service provider could recognize the use situation of each radio selective call receiver based on the call record, and could stop the service to the radio selective call receiver in which there is no call during a predetermined time.
However, there is the possibility that service is stopped based on the call record of the message destined to the user, regardless of whether the user uses the radio selective call receiver actually. Moreover, the problem would occur that the user does not recognize that service has been stopped because of few call frequencies.
Therefore, in the radio selective call receiver, a function to manage the use situation of the service based on the call record and a function to avoid the stop of the service beforehand are demanded.
In conjunction with the above description, a radio selective call receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 5-300075). In this reference, the radio selective call receiver is composed of an antenna (1), a radio section (2), a waveform shaping circuit (3), a decoder (4), a CPU (5), an ID-ROM (6), a driver section (7), a memory (8), a speaker (9), an LED (10), a power switch (11) and a notifying operation stop switch (12). A counter (51) of the CPU (5) counts time from a notifying operation start time to a notifying operation automatic stop time. A counter (52) of the CPU (5) counts time from the notifying operation automatic stop time to an operation of the switch (12). The CPU (5) selects one of the notifying operation contents based on the time counted by he counter (52).
Also, a radio selective call receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 6-61920). In this reference, a schedule control section (8) issues a control signal to a CPU (6) at an alarm notifying time which has been preset through an execution of a schedule function. The CPU (6) determines whether any message not yet read out is present in an EEPROM (7), in response to the control signal. The CPU (6) notifies that any message not yet read out is present, by an alarm which is changed based on a schedule alarm.
Also, a radio selective call receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 6-120869). In this reference, a decoder (14) extracts a call signal and a message signal from a selective call signal Sa which has been received and demodulated by a reception/demodulation section (12), and determines whether the selective call signal is destined to a user. A CPU (20) stores a message corresponding to the message signal in a message memory (21). Also, the CPU (20) temporarily stores a serial number in a buffer (23) and calculates a difference between the serial number and a serial number immediately before the reception. When the difference is equal to or more than 2, a alert signal FA is outputted from a non-reception alert signal generator (17).
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a radio selective call receiver which has a function to avoid the stop of a service beforehand based on a call record of the radio selective call receiver.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a radio selective call receiver which a function to recognize a call record based on a kind of a selective call number and a function to avoid use stop of a service beforehand.
In order to achieve an aspect of the present invention, a radio selective call receiver includes a receiving section, a recognizing section, an alarm section and a control section. The receiving section receives a radio signal. The recognizing section detects a message and a selective call number from the received radio signal, and recognizes selectively a reception time of the message as a latest reception time based on a kind of the selective call number. The alarm section generates an alarm in response to an alarm instruction. The control section compares at a comparison timing, a time difference between a current time and the latest reception time and a predetermined time period, and selectively outputs the alarm instruction to the alarm section based on the comparing result.
Here, the recognizing section recognizes the reception time of the message when the selective call number is one selective call numbers corresponding to individual call messages destined to a user. Alternatively, the recognizing section recognizes the reception time of the message when the selective call number is one of a preset ones of selective call numbers corresponding to individual call messages destined to a user and selective call numbers corresponding to information messages.
Also, when the radio selective call receiver further includes a storage section, the recognizing section stores the latest reception time in the storage section. The control section reads out the latest reception time from the storage section at the comparison timing, and compares the time difference between the current time and the latest reception time and the predetermined time period. In this case, the comparison timing is predetermined. Also, the comparison timing may be a changing timing of date.
Further, the control section outputs the alarm instruction to the alarm section when the time difference is larger than the predetermined time period. When the time difference is equal to or smaller than the predetermined time period, the control section returns to a call waiting state without outputting the alarm instruction to the alarm section. In this case, it is preferable that the predetermined time period is shorter than a time period for which a service is effective.
In order to achieve another aspect of the present invention, a method of managing a time difference between message receptions in a radio selective call receiver, includes:
detecting a message and a selective call number from a received radio signal;
recognizing selectively a reception time of the message as a latest reception time based on a kind of the selective call number;
comparing at a comparison timing, a time difference between a current time and the latest reception time and a predetermined time period;
generating an alarm based on the comparing result.
Here, the reception time of the message is recognized when the selective call number is one selective call numbers corresponding to individual call messages destined to a user. Alternatively, the reception time of the message is recognized when the selective call number is one of a preset ones of selective call numbers corresponding to individual call messages destined to a user and selective call numbers corresponding to information messages.
When the latest reception time is stored in a storage section, the latest reception time is read out from the storage section at the comparison timing, and the time difference between the current time and the latest reception time and the predetermined time period is compared. The comparison timing may be predetermined to be a changing timing of date.
An alarm is generated when the time difference is larger than the predetermined time period. When the time difference is equal to or smaller than the predetermined time period, the control returns to a call waiting state without generating the alarm. The predetermined time period may be shorter than a time period for which a service is effective.